Majorca - Pere Ysern Y Alié (1875-1946)

An oil on canvas measuring 60X50 cm (without the golden frame) representing rocks in Majorca signed lower right work circa 1925

Pere Ysern i Alié is a Catalan painter. It was born during the full turmoil of Catalonia, economic, cultural, political. He lived most of his life in Paris, where he discovered Impressionism. His painting owes a lot to the French impressionists, he knew how to assimilate the spirit of the art of that era.
Then on April 3, 1899, with his comrades from the Academy Borrell, Pidelaserra and Fontbona, he left for Paris, at the time when it was a moment of great splendor magnified by the celebration of its universal exhibition, with the Eiffel Tower which is the symbol of European change. He arrived in Paris with different aesthetic opinions and the appearance of another way of thinking specific to the old continent. In the field of art, this will result in a reaction against the idealism of the liberal empire, which takes place around Gustave Courbet, as well as the Barbizon school with Corot, Pissarro and Louis Dauvigny... This foundation of the landscape school will have profound repercussions on Catalan society, on artistic change. It is a France full of vitality and enriched by the industrial revolution that Pere Ysern i Alié found when he arrived there. He will discover the wall decorations of the Pantheon of Puvis de Chavannes, but also the impressionists at the Musée du Luxembourg, it is in this museum that he will be confronted for the first time with the impressionist phenomenon; he learned that shapes are what we think we see: an appearance, and that it is necessary to abandon the drawing of the outline by replacing it with fragmented touches; he studied the great impressionists, such as Monet, Bazille, Sisley and Pissarro. He was immersed in Parisian life and frequented the Catalan circle which resided in Paris and was often exposed to the famous Parisian cabarets such as the Moulin Rouge, owned by the Catalan Josep Oller, where he rubbed shoulders with Toulouse-Lautrec. He returned to Barcelona for a short time in 1904, but his painting was not appreciated as he thought it deserved, so this confirmed his residence in Paris, where he became a regular at the Salon des Indépendants. Nevertheless, the First World War will precipitate a change in the city of Paris, the Moulin Rouge is closed for example, Montmartre loses its animation (the fire of 1915 of the Moulin Rouge will affect Pere Ysern i Alié, who remains faithful all the same in Montmartre).Montparnasse will become the new neighborhood where we must be. But Father Ysern i Alié will continue to paint, under the cover of new aesthetic movements and remains as faithful as ever to cafés and cabarets. Once the war was over, an optimistic renewal took over Paris with the Roaring Twenties (the 1920s) which were marked by the North American presence, foxtrot and jazz.